


Domestic Interests

by grimorie



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Meme
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-19
Updated: 2014-06-19
Packaged: 2018-02-05 08:15:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1811536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimorie/pseuds/grimorie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snippets and day in the life of one Sameen Shaw and Root.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Responses to the [Domesticity Meme](http://isagrimorie.tumblr.com/post/85875063561/big-fat-domesticity-questions-meme-eta-i-added-some)

   **how did they first kiss?**  
     
   Nothing about Root and Shaw can be put in a box, so when that kiss finally happens its not even a high stress situation. No, the danger’s pass and honestly?  
  
   Root knew she was risking life and limb but Root’s always been a big believer in nothing ventured and nothing gained.

   Shaw’s attention was on somewhere else.   
  

This was probably why she got as close as she did or why when Root caught the lapels of Shaw’s dark jacket she didn’t react until Root pulled the jacket, and Shaw to her, dipped her own head down and kissed Shaw.   
  
   ( _But this is what the Machine whispers in her ear, it whispers about Shaw’s reaction time, and at the back of Root’s mind she knows, if Shaw had wanted to, she could’ve punched Root right on the jaw, but she didn’t_.)  
  
   Root found herself smiling, because sometime after that Shaw was kissing her too. A lifetime or a few seconds after that Shaw steps back, and she takes another. “Got that out of your system?”  
  
   “I don’t know, why don’t you step closer so I can test again.”  
  
   Shaw only raised an eyebrow at her, any other person would be intimidated at that, any other person would completely miss the ghost of a smile playing at the corner of Shaw’s lips.  
  
   Root was not any other person.  
  
   Shaw turned back, her gun already out, but before she turned the corner, Root heard Shaw murmur, “Run your test again later.”  
  
   **how did they start living together? do they move? how do they choose the place?**  
     
   The don’t so much start living together as Root moved in incrementally.   
  
   Root has her own missions, roaming around the world but when she’s around, she usually turns up on Shaw’s door with either a drink or food.   
  
   She hasn’t tried breaking in again since Shaw installed some major security, and Shaw knows Root knows ‘cause the meddling Machine would’ve told her.  
  
   But it happens and one day Shaw notices that Root has her own drawer and space in her closet. So, what the hell, when the Machine gives Root another mission, Shaw stops her with a, “Hey.”  
  
   Root turns and Shaw tosses a key to her. Root’s eyes widens, looks at her and Shaw knows Root’s about to say something to ruin the moment so Shaw talks over her: “I get tired waking up to your knocking, don’t read into it.”   
  
   Root “I do love your way with words.”  
     
   “Yeah, yeah.”  
  
    **do they have kids?**  
  
   Kids? Her and Root? With the way their lives are frequently on the line and their… unique view on life?  
     
   Shaw doesn’t even consider it. At all.  
  
   Except there’s Gen. Shaw was just glad when the whole Samaritan thing went down Gen wasn’t affected, even under her new identity Shaw found a way to check up on the kid.  
  
   Finally when all things were clear and Gen really needed a place to stay for the summer, Finch was about to volunteer when Gen said: “Can I stay with Shaw?”  
  
   Two voices went: “What???”  
  
   But Gen was adamant and apparently Finch was a soft touch when it comes to kids, so there Shaw was stuck with Gen. But Gen was cooler than most kids so that was fine, and she was pretty sure Root was out of town—  
  
   She saw the movement before she saw the person, but she also saw the hand so instead of headbutting the person yanking her away Shaw let herself be pulled.  
  
   “Hey, Lover.”  
  
   But before Shaw could respond there was a thud and suddenly Root went down like a stack of bricks, and behind her was Gen. Girl cold cocked Root with her book. Shaw felt something odd stir in her chest. Could be pride, could be she’s going down with something.  
  
  There was a look of chagrin on Gen's face, “I thought she was attacking you.”  
  
  Root was beginning to stir on the floor, she’d probably get a bruise from that. Shaw prodded Root’s side with her foot. “Don’t worry she’ll live.”  
  
  Root groaned, turned over and blinked owlishly at Shaw, then Gen. “You must be Genrika.”  
  
   “Gen.” Shaw said, the same time Gen did.   
  
   “I’m so sorry for hitting you,” Gen said. "But you did just grab Shaw out of nowhere."   
  
   Root was up on her feet in no time, and grinning. “Welcome home, Gen. You’ll fit right in, my bruised head can tell already.”  
  
  
   
      
    **favorite non-sexual activity?**  
  
   When they do have down time, when there’s no looming crisis, no Number to save. Their lives are actually pretty normal, and after all the extracurricular sweaty activities (and sex) Shaw likes to read, and Root just likes tinkering with every new gadget. So that’s how lazy off days go for them, Shaw would be on the couch with her feet propped up, and if she manages to steal him away from Reese, Bear beside her.  
  
   Root’s on the other end of the couch, with her feet on Shaw’s lap.   
  
   And when Gen starts to live with them regularly Root turns out to be an excellent cook. “Didn’t know you could cook.”  
  
   Its all take out and steak dinners out, when it turns out Root could cook.  
  
   “You didn’t ask.”    
  
   (Shaw buys the apartment next to her and knocks down the wall to make way for Gen’s room, and apparently since its not safe to store munitions next to Gen’s food, most of her explosives have their own room now, and then Root begins to leave passive aggressive messages about her computer gear. Shaw leaves a sledgehammer by Root’s side of the bed. She wants a room to herself, she gets to knock down her own wall. Shaw does get around helping when it becomes clear Root might be a Top Grade Hacker and the Machine’s Chosen One but her strength has a lot left to be desired, and Shaw makes a note to train up Root’s upper body strength.)  
  
  
    **what habits of the other drives them crazy?**  
  
   Honestly? Every other thing about Root’s habits drives Shaw crazy. It was no picnic when Root started hanging around her home  more and more often. Shaw isn’t used to having company over, and for a while Shaw resented it until Root stopped being coy and asked Shaw point blank what the hell her problem is.  
  
   Shaw began listing them down, and to Shaw’s surprise Root took down notes. Like, honest to god notes. “You’re not psychoanalyzing me, right?”  
  
   Because Shaw knew all about Root’s Turing persona.   
  
   “No, I’m writing down what you’re saying so we can come at a compromise. Although if you ask me, you’re just showing classic case of—-“  
  
   “I don’t like being psychoanalyzed.”  
  
   “I don’t either, but can I say one thing?”  
  
   “What?”  
  
   “Maybe you should actually store food in your fridge instead of weapons, its no wonder you’re always hungry.”  
  
   “I’m always hungry because I like food and my metabolism burns fast.”  
  
   As for Root, it drives her crazy that Shaw won’t add *color* to her house. Its either all black or all white. So she started bringing home things from her trips around the world.   
  
   Root also wasn’t too fond of Shaw’s disdain for modern technology, who doesn’t love modern technology?   
  
  
    **how often do they fight?**  
  
   They don’t really fight, they have disagreements but they don’t really fight. Sometimes Root does purposefully push Shaw too far to get a reaction but that’s how they work.  
  
   But Root also knows, there’s a possibility that if the Machine ever went rogue, Shaw wouldn’t stand with the Machine. For all her swagger about killing people, Shaw had a line. Root knows this line but she doesn’t share it.   
  
   Root suspects Shaw knows this, when the day comes. If the day comes…  
  
  
    **who does most of the cleaning?**  
  
   Since Shaw is around more often, it falls on her, and anyway she can’t really abide a messy house. Her mother, and the Marine drill sergeant made sure she had a constant need to have everything just so.  
  
    **who leaves their stuff lying everywhere?**  
  
   Root, and it drove Shaw insane until they had the talk.   
    
    **what does their closet(s) look like?**  
  
   Shaw’s closet isn’t very imaginative nor colorful. Root has more variety, she likes colors when she can get away with it, especially when she’s cultivating a new persona for a job.  
     
    **what would they do if the other one was hurt?**  
  
   Getting hurt is part of the job, but Root does love it when Shaw plays doctor. But it isn’t much fun when its the other way around. Because even if she wasn’t a doctor, she still has a doctor’s attitude about knowing how to heal herself better and the stubborn jarhead mentality about getting hurt and its *annoying* when it comes to play.  
      
    **what are little gestures they do for each other?**  
      
   Root is handsy. Yeah, some (a lot of) times in a pervy way but more often than not, Root just likes holding on to something or someone. She can’t help herself. Its like she needs to know that Shaw was really there.  
     
   Shaw figured it out fast, and she found herself not minding being touched. It also, felt like Root was testing how far she could get Shaw used to being around her so much.  
  
   Shaw figured that out too.


	2. Chapter 2

**_do they act different in public and at home?_ **

They do, or at least, Shaw does. Root is Root wherever she goes, the only time she isn’t is if she were playing a role. 

Its not that Shaw acts different when she’s home, its that she’s less on her guard. She’s made every precaution to keep her home as safe as can be. she had Root try to break into her home and when Root still manages to find her way in, while she was sleeping, Shaw re-did her security again until it was Root and Machine safe.

"I’d be offended if I don’t also live here," Root told her on their fifth attempt.

"If you and your better half can’t get in here, that means Samaritan can’t either."

Root leaned against the wall, Shaw noticed her smile. “What?”

"Just never thought we’d get here."

"After all your talk of Pandora boxes and hope too."

"That was Her pep talk not mine."

It still catches Shaw off guard, the way Root can go from playful to earnestly serious. It used to throw Shaw off, she didn’t really know how to respond.

Root was looking away and maybe listening to the soft murmurs of the Machine to notice how close Shaw was. Root startled when Shaw held her face.

Outside of these walls, its always been Root who initiated contact, but here where its safe Shaw can allow herself this. She can give Root this. “We’re here now.”

Root’s eyes roamed across her face then slowly leaned her forehead against Shaw’s. “She says there’s a crawl space behind the shelf in the kitchen.”

Shaw chuckled. “You say the sweetest things.”

 

**_sleeping habits?_ **

 

Shaw is a naturally paranoid person, even before she joined the Activity. She can also sleep anywhere but she can also wake-up at the slightest change in her surroundings. So the fact that Root had the drop on her and even managed to kidnap her?

It stuck in her craw so bad she took extra precautions which explains the—

" _Shit!_ "

"You’re back early," Shaw mumbled then sat up, in time to see Root remove the modified mouse trap from her left foot.

"When are you going to stop putting traps around the bed?"

"I don’t know, I had a pretty traumatic experience. Some psycho kidnapped me a few years ago. Bitch even tased me."

Root looked at her in exasperation. “Are you ever going to let that go.”

"I have let it go, I’m just not forgetting it."

"Maybe next time I’ll just take the couch," Root said grumpily.

Shaw laughed, caught Root’s hand and tugged, she fell into the bed with a yelp. “And miss all the fun? I don’t think so.”

 

**_who does the groceries_?**

Since she’s around most of the time, Shaw. Root tried to buy groceries online and have it delivered to Shaw’s place —- a miscalculation Root regretted because the Machine immediately notified her that Shaw was calling her.

The result ended with a long conversation about safety and boundaries. Root had to talk Shaw down from moving yet AGAIN, she had the computers wipe all traces of the call and she had the delivery sent to an empty building five blocks away from where Shaw lived.

Root decided that maybe for errands like this, its better to be more analog. As a compromise Root decided to bring home any food she could from her travels.

 

**_how do they refer to the other in public? how do other people refer to the other? (i.e. “my partner”, “ask your father”, ”dad and papa”, ”how’s your wife?”, etc)_ **

Shaw refers to Root as: “Oh, yeah, she’s Root.”

"But you guys are—"

"Are what?"

Fusco gestured to her, “You guys are dating right?”

Shaw narrowed her eyes, “Is this any of your business?”

Root on the other hand, positively delights calling Shaw whatever she wants: Paramour, lover,  and then it moved on to food: Honey, cupcake, buttercup, pumpkin, apple pie, etc., and she always does it at the most inconvenient moments. 

Shaw’s face is always neutral but Root can spot the minute tic in her jaw and Root knows later that day Shaw’s going to make Root pay later. And Root. Can’t. Wait.

 

**_do they celebrate birthdays, valentine’s day, anniversaries?_ **

Not really. For most of it, they’re both too busy or away. But there’s always that one day that Shaw never ever fails to call on. Its the day they all walked away. Its always just a simple message that the Machine relays on her either through morse code or voice recordings: “I’m here.”

 

**_what are little gestures they do for each other?_ **

Root always makes sure Shaw has something to eat, no matter what time or day. There was one mission, one Number that pulled them away from the city. It was a high stress mission, when John, for some damned reason drops an energy bar into her lap. 

"What—"

"Root," was all Reese said then he went back shooting the local militia. "Better eat that fast."

Whenever Root comes back home and crashes (after narrowly escaping Shaw’s traps), she wakes up to the smell of good coffee and to several of her phones and her laptop fully charged. Root finds herself grinning, if that wasn’t love, she didn’t know what was.

"Stop grinning like a loon at your computer and come here so I can check your bandages."

Shaw had her medical kit out.

Root’s grin widened. “I really love it when you play doctor.”

Shaw smirked. “I know.”


	3. Chapter 3

_**big spoon/little spoon?**_  
  
If they ever do… it would most likely be Shaw. Shaw doesn’t like feeling trapped, except I think neither of them would like playing the big spoon/little spoon roles. I think maybe they would prefer being close to each other without really cuddling, maybe they’d sleep facing each other.   
  
Practical reasons for Shaw, since she can figure out if Root is up to something and she can leap out of bed FAST. For Root, she just likes watching Shaw, even as she sleeps to which Shaw will always say:   
  
‘I can feel you staring at me, stop it. It’s creepy and weird.’  
  


_**what do they watch on tv and do they fight for the remote?**_  
  
You know who likes watching TV? Also who’s a secret sci-fi geek? Shaw. Secretly she used to own The Foundation Series, the Dune novels, Margaret Atwood novels. She all lost them when turned in her white coat and returned to Active Dute.  
  
So part of her paranoia also comes from watching and reading all the sci-fi things about having one scary computer system, while thinking its also kind of cool.   
  
So it all boils down to Shaw watching a lot of DVDs on her down time. They don’t fight for the remote because Root would have her things cued up too (also, she can just download because she was a hacker, Shaw, duh). Shaw found the hard way that she can’t watch any sci-fi shows with TV computer hackers because Root is insufferable about TV computer hackers.   
  
Root also realized that she can’t actually watch Military/Spy and Medical procedurals because Shaw gets snarky.   
  
They end up watching documentaries. Its the only thing they can watch together without being murderous. 

_**what kind of stuff can be found around their place?** _  
  
Guns, long guns, semtex, surveillance equipment, gas mask, computer equipment. A room that has the ability to jam all electronic signals. All manner of sharp objects, excellent knives for both cooking and killing people, and a _Katana_ Shaw managed to pick up somewhere.

The Machine didn’t know where Shaw picked it up either and all Shaw shared was: ‘I had a run in with an old friend in Japan. He didn’t need it anymore.’  
  
When Gen visits: school books, chemistry set — Shaw is an excellent chemist. If you want to build bombs, you gotta be a good chemist.   
  
_**how often do they go on dates?**_  
  
Very rarely and quite spontaneously with their lifestyle its difficult to plan anything so its mostly Root swooping in and jetting Shaw off to some exotic locale as they dismantle terrorist cells and they visit one of the many restaurants in Shaw’s Black Book of Excellent Restaurants.   
  
Shaw cooks Root one of the recipes her mom passed down to her. She was in the middle of mixing the sauces when the lights went dark. Shaw stiffened, remembering the last time.  
  
'Just a blackout, Sameen.' Root's voice drifted from the kitchen island. 'Nothing more nefarious than that, well a couple of teenagers did something that really won’t interest you. That smells wonderful, what is that?’  
  
‘[Joojeh](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_yMEJcplkQAw/TJWmnidkDAI/AAAAAAAABnQ/jEiDgukldiM/s1600/Persian+Joojeh+Kabab.jpg) [kabab](http://mideastfood.about.com/od/kebabs/r/Joojeh_Kebab.htm).’  
  
‘Ooh. Chicken.’  
  
‘Sit your ass down, Root. I’m almost done.’  
  
Shaw was true to her word in five minutes she brought the food out and placed it on the table. Root was looking at her with that crooked grin and something else that made Shaw uncomfortable. ‘What’s with that face?’  
  
‘We’re having dinner with candle light. Its almost conventionally romantic of you, Sameen.’  
  
Shaw narrowed her eyes. ‘I didn’t plan the blackout, Root.’  
  
‘I’m sure your maman’s recipe is wonderful, and your cooking excellent.’ Root said, because it was polite and complimentary thing to say.   
  
‘Just eat your damned kabab before I decide to eat all of it.’  
  
‘You’d need a vigorous work out if you decided to do that.’  
  
Shaw returned one of Root’s sly grins back to her, ‘I would, wouldn’t I?’


End file.
